The proposed research project seeks to develop a model of the relationship between economic change and need for and utilization of mental health services in an economically depressed region. The model should help us to better understand the relationship between social well-being and economic change. In addition, it should be of sufficient specificity that it can be employed to better plan for services in response to anticipated future changes in the regional economy. The research will be built around a 25-year data set of episodes of mental illness in one depressed region. The site of the study will be the Fitchburg, Mass. area. This area has been chosen because we have available a 25-year data set on virtually all episodes of mental illness in the region. The set breaks down all episodes by month, by age, by sex, by diagnosis, by place of treatment, by length of treatment and by occupation and/or educational levels. The data were gathered from state mental hospital records, outpatient clinical records, community records from psychiatric units of general hospitals and surveys of private practitioners in the area. These data were gathered as part of an evaluation of mental health services in the region. The data will be modeled using two types of statistical models: time series and cross-sectional ones. In addition, a history of the regional economy and mental health programs will also be developed to provide a context against which to evaluate the statistical findings. The time series modeling represents a replication and extension of a methodology originally developed by Brenner (1973). In place of his annual data for a large state, the proposed model will be far more precise, using monthly data for a clearly circumscribed economic region. The importance of this departure stems from the fact that it holds to the promise of allowing us to develop models which are sufficiently precise to allow us to use estimates from those models for policy and planning purposes.